


Late Night

by rveebee



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, hehe gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 15:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16558532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rveebee/pseuds/rveebee
Summary: The longest that Wash had ever been awake was eight days. That was during the time spent with the Meta, unable to trust it and thus unable to sleep with it around. By the end of that, the hallucinations had been worse than anything the Meta could have done to him. Now, on Chorus, he was on his third day. It wasn’t ideal, his movements sluggish and his mind scrambled, but it wasn’t like he was seeing action in those days. It was meeting after meeting, then training, then another meeting and then a briefing and so on.





	Late Night

**Author's Note:**

> hello!!! welcome to file "im p sure this was supposed to be tuckington but its caboosington now fuck u"! this has been in my drafts for a while so i decided to finish it with no beta nor read over it myself so here u go.

The longest that Wash had ever been awake was eight days. That was during the time spent with the Meta, unable to trust it and thus unable to sleep with it around. By the end of that, the hallucinations had been worse than anything the Meta could have done to him. Now, on Chorus, he was on his third day. It wasn’t ideal, his movements sluggish and his mind scrambled, but it wasn’t like he was seeing action in those days. It was meeting after meeting, then training, then another meeting and then a briefing and so on.

 

Sure, looking into mirrors wasn’t the most fun activity, with his eyebags and messy hair from sitting over work all night, but as long as he wore his armor around other people, he would be fine. Which he was, but most people refused to believe him even when he told them repeatedly. And tried to make him sleep in various ways going from persuading him, physically picking him up and throwing him into bed or locking him in his room. The latter being very counterproductive since the work was  _ in  _ his room but at least Tucker and Caboose had tried. 

 

So yeah, maybe Wash wasn’t sleeping but how could he with so much work to do? He had to schedule everything from his own schedule, to his team’s schedule, to basically the schedule of both armies while maintaining peace during training sessions and also handling those. The joining of the New Republic and the Federal Army was a lot more stressful than any of them could have imagined and the brunt of it lay on Kimball, Doyle, Carolina and Wash. So yeah, Wash hadn’t been sleeping. 

 

On the fourth night spent awake, Wash was brooding over plans for a mission to collect as many resources as they could find, hopefully a lot of crates of ammunition. Carolina had found a warehouse about three hours away from the capital that is basically left to its own devices, with only minimal guards around. It had seemed suspicious at first, but after several reconnaissance missions, it had been deemed worth a shot. He was concentrating deeply on his work when someone knocked on his door. He continued scribbling a bit more, even considering not opening the door at all, but eventually he got up to open the door. And looked up at Caboose, wearing his usual sunny smile.

 

“Good evening, Wash! Ah, after you didn’t open the door for a while, I was hoping that you were asleep but I didn’t hear your snoring so I knew that you were still up so I decided to wait and then you opened the door!” Wash had let Caboose step in while he was talking and was now closing the door.

 

“Yeah, sorry, buddy, I’ve been working.” Wash smiled apologetically but Caboose kept the same sunny expression while moving to sit on Wash’s bed. “Anyway, how can I help you?”

 

“Ah, well, you see.” Caboose’s happy demeanor changed and instead he started playing with the hem of his shirt and avoided Wash’s eyes, which he didn’t normally do unless something was bothering him or he had done something he wasn’t allowed to do. Since no one had come into his room, screaming, nor were there any sirens, Wash assumed it was the former. After Caboose still hadn’t answered after a few seconds, Wash sighed and walked to squat in front of Caboose.

 

“Is everything okay?” He asked softly and tried to look at Caboose but the taller man wouldn’t look at Wash. “Did something happen?” Caboose shook his head, but then started nodding instead. It had taken quite a lot of time to figure out what that meant at first but Wash had become quite good at deciphering teammates. So this didn’t mean that someone had indeed happened, it just meant that something indirect had happened. 

 

“Are you okay?” Wash tried again and this time Caboose shrugged. Wash repressed his sigh and moved from his spot on the floor to sitting next to Caboose. Which was apparently the right decision, since Caboose immediately latched onto his side and hugged him fiercely. Wash smiled and leaned into the hug while wrapping his arms around Caboose as much as he could. After a few seconds, Caboose mumbled something into his neck.

 

“Could you repeat that, buddy?” 

 

“I miss you.” Came the quiet reply and Wash furrowed his brows.

 

“I didn’t go anywhere.” He answered, confused as to what Caboose meant.

 

“Yeah, but you- you are working so much and I didn’t see you everyday and when I did, you were gone again and Tucker didn’t understand and the Sergeant was mean, too…” And to Wash’s horror, he felt big tears running down Caboose’s cheeks and onto his shirt. Wash made a distressed noise and moved to lay his hand on his friend’s head, but realized his arms were effectively trapped by his sides.

 

“Caboose-” Wash started, but Caboose just squeezed him tighter as a sob rung through the room. Wash’s brows furrowed more than they already were while Caboose continue to hold onto him and sobbing. Unable to move his arms or change their position somehow, he started gently rocking from side to side and eventually Caboose loosened his arms enough to let Wash embrace him more and get both of them to lie on the bed, the bigger man underneath him. 

 

Tears were still running down Caboose’s face, but he had stopped sobbing and instead of attempting to crush Wash in a hug, he was now fiddling with the hem on the back of his shirt. Wash opted to lie on Caboose’s chest and listening to his heartbeat, which slowly calmed down until it returned to the steady beat Wash was used to.

 

“Are you okay now, buddy?” Caboose made a noise somewhere in between a whine and a ‘no’, so Wash moved to look at Caboose, who again wasn’t looking at him. “I’m sorry I’ve been so absent, Caboose. I have a lot of work on my plate, but I shouldn’t have neglected you.” Wash moved a hand to wipe away some of Caboose’s tears and fortunately, the other started to slightly smile, though he still looked sad. 

 

“It’s okay, Wash, I just wish you would- You know, we can help, that’s what friends do.” Caboose looked at Wash with his big, big eyes and Wash could practically feel his heart shattering. A gentle soul like Caboose did not deserve to ever feel pain.

 

“You’re right, buddy. I think I just thought I could handle this on my own, but you’re right.” Caboose’s smile widened and he nodded so fast his curls bounced up and down and Wash couldn’t bring himself not to smile back. 

 

“So now that you’ve already stopped working! You can sleep now!” Caboose exclaimed and Wash swore his eyes sparkled.

 

“I guess you’re right.” Wash smirked.

 

“Yes, I am!” Caboose grabbed Wash’s face in both of his hands and pressed a kiss to his cheek before getting up. The kiss, and especially the warm feeling that was rumbling in his chest, had startled Wash so much that he was still just lying there when Caboose climbed back into bed and pulled the covers over them. 

 

“Goodnight, Wash!” Caboose exclaimed and flashed another smile at Wash, before snuggling into his chest. Wash pulled himself out of his stupor with a smile towards the top of Caboose’s head and arranging his arms around him again.

 

“Goodnight, Caboose.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hope u enjoyed that, leave kudos and a comment and talk to me on tumblr at epsipepsilon


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